I Think I

Chapter 4:Confrontation

Shinobi instincts kicked in the moment she landed in the clearing with her ANBU escorts. Instead of preparing to leap back into the trees to continue on their way to Konoha, they quickly leaped back as a foreign chakra signature made itself known to them.

Immediately on her guard, despite the lack of killing intent from the unknown person, she quickly henge-d her face into her male form and gripped Sasayaki's hilt. Slipping into the Suna kenjutsu stance Kujira-sensei taught her, she noted the ANBU were in taijutsu stances as well, and at the nod of the senior ANBU, she called out in a voice deeper than her real voice, "Who's there? Show yourself!"

Somewhat deranged chuckles were heard, and a figure wrapped in a long black hooded cloak rose fluidly out of the ground not four meters in front of the Konoha nins.

"Naruto-kun. A pleasure to meet you," the cloaked man said. Naruto narrowed her eyes – the voice was very familiar. Then a mental light bulb went off in her head.

"Kabuto! What do you want?" she asked, half-unsheathing her katana. The ANBU beside her tensed, and she could feel killing intent from them, but surprisingly, none from Kabuto so far.

The traitorous medic nin raised his head so that they could see the right half of his face, but his left half was kept covered by the hood. He gave them a smile.

"Now, now, Naruto-kun, must you always be so brash?" Kabuto chuckled. "I come in peace. After all, we're both after the same thing. Or person, rather."

"What are you talking about?" the blonde girl said loudly, watching the traitor warily.

"Why, Sasuke-sama, of course. No, I should call him Sasuke-kun now, since he did kill Orochimaru-sama after all."

Naruto schooled her features to reveal no surprise at the fact that Kabuto apparently didn't know Sasuke was back in Konoha.

"And so?"

"No need to be so rude, Naruto-kun. One would think that you had learned some manners by now, eh?"

"Get on with it, Kabuto. I don't have time for this. Where's Sasuke if he's not with Orochimaru? And how could he have killed that Hebi Yarou? He's not that strong!" Naruto bluffed.

Kabuto chuckled his deranged chuckle again and pushed his glasses further up his nose. "It's true, Naruto-kun. Sasuke-kun killed Orochimaru-sama when he was at his weakest – at the exact moment he began the body transfer. As to where Sasuke-kun is now, I'm afraid I have only a vague idea. Rumour has it that he fought Uchiha Itachi at the Suna-Konoha border. I'm making my way there to investigate the scene of the crime, so to speak."

"And why are you telling me all this? What do you want with me?" asked Naruto as she glared at the grey-haired man. The mad glint in his eye sent a shiver down her spine. Kabuto slowly reached for something behind his back under his cloak, and the Konoha trio quickly tensed. Naruto pulled out Sasayaki and held it in a defensive position, and the ANBU members pulled out their own katana.

Kabuto merely tossed a black book at them.

"What's that?" Naruto didn't relax her guard.

"A copy of Orochimaru-sama's compiled information on Akatsuki. His little black book, you might say."

"And why are you giving this to us?"

"Well, Naruto-kun. As you probably know, Orochimaru-sama was once a member of Akatsuki, and when he left, they weren't too happy about it, and had been giving him quite a bit of trouble."

"And so?" Naruto asked stupidly, although she could already understand what Kabuto was insinuating. It never hurt to mislead your enemies into thinking you were stupider than you actually were.